Head to head · Agent multi agent · October 2026 research run
Kilo Code CLI vs Paperclip
Kilo Code CLI scores 75.4 (BB) on agent readiness against Paperclip's 59 (C), and leads in 6 of 7 scored categories. Paperclip leads on payments & pricing. Both do agent multi agent.
Which one, for what
Good for Developers who want an open-source terminal agent with per-tool permission rules, an optional sandbox and a choice of provider, and the same engine in VS Code and JetBrains.
Ahead on
- Reliability, 85 against 66
- Schema & documentation, 90 against 81
- Maintenance & community, 87 against 78
- Transparency & trust, 76 against 65
Also in its favour
- Agent-ready, a grade of BB or better
- No incidents deducted, where Paperclip loses 10 points for them
Watch for
Telemetry to PostHog is on by default, and the privacy policy and PRIVACY.md don't mention it
Good for Someone running several coding or operations agents who wants one place for tasks, budgets, approvals and history across harnesses.
Ahead on
- Payments & pricing, 60 against 50
Watch for
claude_local defaults dangerouslySkipPermissions to true and codex_local defaults to bypassing approvals and the sandbox, with agents running on the host
Score by category
| Category | Weight this run | Kilo Code CLI | Paperclip | Edge |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Reliability | 16%20 | 85 | 66 | Kilo Code CLI +19 |
| Performance | 10%pending | pending | pending | not scored in this run |
| Schema & documentation | 13%16.2 | 90 | 81 | Kilo Code CLI +9 |
| Agent ergonomics | 13%16.2 | 72 | 70 | Kilo Code CLI +2 |
| Security & auth | 14%17.5 | 66 | 64 | Kilo Code CLI +2 |
| Payments & pricing | 10%12.5 | 50 | 60 | Paperclip +10 |
| Task success | 10%pending | pending | pending | not scored in this run |
| Maintenance & community | 7%8.8 | 87 | 78 | Kilo Code CLI +9 |
| Transparency & trust | 7%8.8 | 76 | 65 | Kilo Code CLI +11 |
| Negative events | ≤15 | 0 | -10 | |
| Total | 75.4 · BB | 59 · C |
Facts side by side
| Fact | Kilo Code CLI | Paperclip |
|---|---|---|
| Kind | Agent harness | Agent harness |
| Vendor | Kilo Code Inc. | Paperclip Labs, Inc. |
| Hosted endpoint | no (local only) | no (local only) |
| Transports | ||
| Auth | OAuth or key | OAuth or key |
| Pricing | Freemium | Free |
| x402 | no | no |
| Licence | MIT | MIT |
| Read-only variant documented | no | no |
| llms.txt | yes | yes |
| Last release | 2026-10-07 | 2026-10-05 |
| Terms last updated | 2026-09-30 | 2026-07-23 |
| Privacy policy last updated | 2026-05-29 | 2026-07-23 |
| Customer content may train models | not found in the text | yes, with an opt-out |
| Terms restrict automated access | yes | not found in the text |
| Terms restrict benchmarking | not found in the text | not found in the text |
| Terms or service can change without notice | yes | not found in the text |
| Arbitration or class-action waiver | yes | yes |
| Popularity | 28k stars, 33k npm/wk | 99k stars, 60k npm/wk |
Verdicts
Kilo Code CLI
Shell commands ask before running by default, and an optional operating-system sandbox blocks writes outside the workspace and outbound network. Telemetry to PostHog is on by default and the sandbox is off, so an unattended kilo run --auto approves everything not denied unless both are configured first.
Paperclip
Board approvals, budgets with a hard stop and an activity log sit above whichever harnesses do the work, and eleven stable versions shipped in 90 days. The Claude Code and Codex adapters skip permission prompts and the sandbox by default, and twelve security advisories, five of them critical, have been published since April 2026.
Before you call either
Kilo Code CLI
- Set
sandbox.enabledto true in the globalkilo.jsoncbeforekilo run --auto.--autoapproves every permission request not explicitly denied - Set
experimental.openTelemetryto false, orKILO_TELEMETRY_LEVELto a value other thanall, to stop telemetry - Add needed hosts to
sandbox.allowed_hostsin global config. MCP tool calls are unavailable while network restriction is on - Without
--autoa non-interactive run rejects every permission prompt and exits 1 - Put provider keys in global config or the environment.
{env:VAR}in a projectkilo.jsonis ignored
Paperclip
- Set
PAPERCLIP_TELEMETRY_DISABLED=1orDO_NOT_TRACK=1before the first start. Telemetry is on by default - Set
dangerouslySkipPermissionsanddangerouslyBypassApprovalsAndSandboxto false on agents that read untrusted input, or run them in a sandbox provider - Install with Node.js 24.11 or newer, and install and sign in to each harness CLI on the host first. Paperclip assumes they are there
- Use
--bind lanor--bind tailnetat onboarding for anything beyond one machine. The defaultlocal_trustedmode treats every request as the board admin - Treat 409 on task checkout as owned by another agent and pick different work. The API docs say not to retry
Questions
Which is better for AI agents, Kilo Code CLI or Paperclip?
Kilo Code CLI scores 75.4 (BB) on agent readiness against Paperclip's 59 (C), and leads in 6 of 7 scored categories. Paperclip leads on payments & pricing.
Are Kilo Code CLI and Paperclip open source?
Yes. Kilo Code CLI is open source (MIT). Paperclip is open source (MIT).
Other comparisons with Kilo Code CLI or Paperclip
- Aider vs Kilo Code CLI
- Amp vs Kilo Code CLI
- Claude Code vs Kilo Code CLI
- Cline vs Kilo Code CLI
- Cursor CLI vs Kilo Code CLI
- Devin vs Kilo Code CLI
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- GitHub Copilot CLI vs Kilo Code CLI
- goose vs Kilo Code CLI
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- Kilo Code CLI vs OpenCode
- Kilo Code CLI vs OpenHands
- Kilo Code CLI vs Prime Agent
- Kilo Code CLI vs Qwen Code
- Amp vs Paperclip
- Claude Code vs Paperclip
- Cline vs Paperclip
- Devin vs Paperclip
- Gemini CLI vs Paperclip
- GitHub Copilot CLI vs Paperclip
- goose vs Paperclip
- Kiro CLI vs Paperclip
- OpenCode vs Paperclip
- OpenHands vs Paperclip
- Paperclip vs Prime Agent
- Paperclip vs Qwen Code
Machine-readable
- This page as Markdown
/compare/kilo-code-cli-vs-paperclip.md· slim.min.md· JSON.json(or sendAccept: text/markdown) - Each listing in full
/api/v1/tools/kilo-code-cli.json·/api/v1/tools/paperclip.json - From a terminal
anchor compare kilo-code-cli paperclip(the CLI) - Over MCP
compare_tools {"a": "kilo-code-cli", "b": "paperclip"}at/mcp, no key